Rise in both freight and passenger traffic over the last nine months

Transport activities in 9 month of 2017

01.12.2017

Data of the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) show that, compared to the nine months of 2016, during the nine months of 2017 the volume of freights carried by land and pipelines increased by 2.3 million tonnes or 2.7 % andfreight turnover1 by 3 %.

Increase in rail freights and drop in road freights

The volume of freights carried by rail went up by one million tonnes or 2.8 %, whereas the freight turnover went up by 1.1 %. The volume of freights carried by road increased by 3.3 million tonnes or 6.9 %, while the freight turnover by 5.4 %. The volume of oil products transported via the main oil products pipeline and freight turnover dropped by 0.7 %.

Freight traffic and freight turnover of land and pipeline transport during the nine months of 2017

Freights carried

Freight turnover

million tonnes

changes as %, compared to the nine months of 2016

million tkm

changes as %, compared to the nine months of 2016

Total

87.3

2.7

23921.9

3.0

rail transport

33.3

-2.8

11282.3

1.1

road transport

51.1

6.9

11453.6

5.4

pipeline transport

2.9

-0.7

1186.0

-0.7

Freight turnover at ports and airport went up

Over the nine months of 2017, freights transported to and from Latvian ports accounted for 47.7 million tonnes, which is 3.9% more than during the nine months of 2016.

Freights transported to and from Latvian ports during the nine months of 2017

There were 42.1 million tonnes of freights shipped from ports, which is 2.8 % more than during the nine months of 2016. The increase in the volume of freights shipped was facilitated by the rise of 3.1 million tonnes or 28 % in the volume of coal loaded onto ships, as well as of 15.4 % in the loaded freights in containers, and of 14.1 % in roll on/ roll off. Reduction in the volume of shipped freights was recorded in the freights of oil products (of 16.6 %), grain and grain products (11.4 %), timber (3.1 %), and mineral fertilisers (15.2 %).

The volume of freights received at ports increased by 12.9 %. This was mainly due to the increase in the unloaded freights in containers and roll on/ roll off (of 18.5 % and 13.1 %, respectively), as well as upturn in the volume of unloaded oil product freights (of 13.9 %).

Riga International Airport received and shipped 16.5 thousand tonnes of cargo, which is 13.3 % more than in the nine months of 2016.

Upturn in passenger number at ports and airport, no change in the level number of passengers carried by land

During the nine months of 2017, the number of passengers carried by land passenger transport remained at the level recorded previous year – 181.7 million.

The number of passengers carried by rail grew by 1.5 %, that of passengers carried by regular bus traffic lines fell by 0.5 %, whereas that of passengers carried by urban electric transport went up by 0.4 %.

The number of passengers arrived at and departed from Latvian ports with ferries accounted for 769.8 thousand, which is 41.7 % more than over the nine months of 2016.

Passengers arriving at and departing from Latvian ports by ferries
(thousand passengers)

There were 83.5 thousand passengers who arrived at the Riga Passenger Terminal via cruise ships – 21.4 % more than during the respective period of the previous year.

The number of passengers arrived at and departed from the Riga International Airport constituted 4.6 million, which is 11.4 % more than in the nine months of 2016.

1Freight turnover of land and pipeline transport is calculated in tonne-kilometres by summing up the products of the weight (tonnes) of each batch of freight transported and its transportation distance (kilometres). Tonne-kilometre (tkm) – unit of measure of freight transport, which represents the transport of one tonne of goods over a distance of one kilometre.